SWA member helps restore seaside landmark

De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea has undergone a major refurbishment with a member of the Steel Window Association being responsible for restoring the 70 year old fenestration.

Frequently used as the setting for scenes from the Poirot detective series, a famous seaside building has undergone an £8 million refurbishment, with a member of the Steel Window Association (SWA) being responsible for restoring the 70 year old fenestration.

The De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea was opened in 1935 after a design competition that stipulated the use of large steel framed windows to achieve a light appearance.

While many of the building's fittings have had to be replaced, the SWA member has been able to remove and renovate the ageing windows to ensure one of the key aspects to the architecture remains authentic.

SWA member West Leigh worked as a specialist sub-contractor to Heasman Spicer Limited, while John McAslan and Partners was the architectural practice in charge.

The refurbishment and repair by architects Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chemayeff, received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council.

While another member of the SWA was contracted to produce several new glazed screens, West Leigh's role in this grand design was to remove the metal frames from around the north and west staircases so that they could be shot-blasted and repaired.

New sections were introduced where corrosion was too extensive to be made good Finally the frames were reinstalled, primed and finished with a spray applied high performance paint system.

All of the windows were reglazed using single leaf toughened glass.

The Project Architect for John McAslan and Partners, Mark Cannata, comments: "The building is next to the sea so the window frames were very heavily corroded, with some sections having very little metal or missing altogether, so West Leigh did a very good job of restoring the windows - something which was commented on by English Heritage.

They were able to make some new sections and 'cannibalise' other remaining for the repairs.

"Obviously being a modernist building, bringing light into the structure was a very important aspect.

We think that the sections that they originally used might have been cast steel sections because they had precise rather than arissed edges.

It appears to have been a deliberate choice of the architect at the time to try and counter balance the other areas of the structure".

The pavilion's director, Alan Haydon says the refurbishment has: "Brought light, air and space back into the building which over the years had been reduced physically and visually.

It has made it much sharper, with cleaner lines".

Referring to the restoration of the curving glass frontage he continued: "We have been undoing some of the work done 10 years ago, but the building is 70 years old and it is important that visitors realise this and how significant the building was at that time.".

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